Point Counterpoint: Baseball

POINT: Spring is here and baseball is back!

by Weston Reeves

Everyone come quick, it’s about to start! Shh! Quiet down, it’s coming on…

Viewers from all over gathered ar-ound their TV sets Monday for the season premiere of professional sports’ greatest melodrama, Major League Baseball. While many will criticize the sport for its recent shortcomings, I praise it for what it is: Some of the best sports entertainment on television.

The off-season antics of the actors involved have this year ready to be one of the best in recent memory.

The behind-the-scenes drama leading up to the 2006 season was spicier than the filming of “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” I’m surprised People Magazine hasn’t written a couple articles on the subject. Let’s take a look shall we?

There was betrayal.

The long-loved hero of the Boston Red Sox, center fielder Johnny Damon, sold his soul (and his hairstyle) to travel south and play for the Evil Empire.

There was scandal.

Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, two sports reporters from the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote a book giving detailed descriptions of Barry Bonds’ steroid regimen leading up to and during his record-breaking seasons.

There was heartbreak.

In the debut year of the World Baseball Classic, the country that invented the sport not only proved it wasn’t the best team in the world; it wasn’t even the best team on the North American continent! After falling to Canada 8-6, the American team was eliminated from competition when it lost to Mexico 2-1.

Despite all of these issues, all the media attention during the off-season simply highlights one important fact about the sport. People watch and people care.

Regardless of the scandals and everything that surrounds Major League Baseball right now, the game itself is still exciting to watch. The players in the game are still good enough to make you get up out of your seat and cheer.

It might not necessarily be America’s pastime anymore, but there are still millions of fans just like me who are ready to root root root for the home team, even if the new guy doesn’t want to play in left field.

COUNTERPOINT: I am still not excited

by Clive White

Opening day (or night) for baseball involved blowouts, close games and syringes. The televised spring training camp days when unknown minor leaguers get some face time is now over. And I am still not excited.

A part of the reason is the World Baseball Classic, which took a little fizzle out of baseball’s pop. Those who just wanted to see quality baseball didn’t have to wait the whole baseball off-season to dull the edge of some fans. The main reason, though, why I am not excited about baseball’s inaugural week is not World Baseball Classic related. The real reason, or reasons rather, is that there are 161 games left to play and the start of a marathon doesn’t interest me.

It isn’t that I think baseball is boring or that I don’t like the sport because neither is true. It is because I cannot get my mind to grasp the importance of all the games. Seeing the Yankees crush somebody felt good. Seeing the Mets get lucky did the same, Watching the Red Sox win upset me, and the syringe had me rolling my eyes, but none of these (besides the Bonds episode) are going to be relevant a week from now. Why? Because there are 161 games left!

ESPN’s Web gems that were spectacular opening day, night, or week will be all but forgotten 80 games into the season, which leaves 82 to be played. A wild dunk in the opening of the NBA season still makes recap highlights by the All-Star Game. And a loss or win will still hold some relevance because those teams will play only two or three more times. An amazing run or catch in week one of the NFL is still recognized as that eight games into the season and brought up during recaps and analysis. And the NHL…well I’m not going to pretend to really know about that, but the shot Alexander Ovechkin took while he was falling has been on the highlight reel for a while.

Maybe if 20 or 30 games were shaved off of the schedule it wouldn’t feel like such a long haul. I mean 140-something games were good for Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth – why wouldn’t it work now? It might just be that because I am not a huge baseball fan that the start of the season wasn’t circled on my calendar or typed in my phone. And I know there are probably plenty of fans who had their baseball-designed helium balloons floating to the top of their

ceiling ready to watch all 162 games this season. Me, I am going to start watching about 20, 30, possibly even 40 games into the season, but I’m pretty sure I won’t miss anything.